BES Facebook groupPress releases
Press releases are posted on the British Ecological Society web pages only after any embargo period has passed. Journalists can access embargoed BES press releases at AlphaGalileo or by contacting Becky Allen, BES Press Officer, email: beckyallen@ntlworld.com.
Links to the most recent press releases are listed below. To view older press releases simply follow the relevant links at the bottom of the page.
Recent press releases
2 September 2010
British Ecological Society Annual Meeting,University of Leeds, 7-9 September 2010
Thousands of ecologists from around the world will gather next week for Europe's largest ecological conference, the British Ecological Society’s Annual Meeting, being held at the University of Leeds from 7-9 September 2009. Hundreds of scientific papers and posters will be presented at the meeting. See the press release for details of conference highlights.
August 2010
Satellite Data Reveals Why Migrating Birds Have a Small Window to Spread Bird Flu
In 2005 an outbreak of the H5N1 ‘bird flu’ virus in South East Asia led to widespread fear with predictions that the intercontinental migration of wild birds could lead to global pandemic. Such fears were never realised, and now research published in the British Ecological Society'sJournal of Applied Ecologyreveals why the global spread of bird flu by direct migration of wildfowl is unlikely but also provides a new framework for quantifying the risk of avian-borne diseases.
8 June 2010
Crocodiles ride ocean currents for ocean travel
The mystery of how the world's largest living reptile - the estuarine crocodile - has come to occupy so many South Pacific islands separated by huge stretches of ocean despite being a poor swimmer has at last been solved by a group of Australian ecologists. Publishing their new study in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Animal Ecology, they say that like a surfer catching a wave, the crocodiles ride ocean currents to cross large areas of open sea.
29 April 2010
Ecologists pay homage to the 'most studied wood in Britain'
Leading ecologists will gather at Wytham Woods today to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its designation as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. Wytham Woods near Oxford is probably the most studied wood in Britain, and the celebration includes the launch of a new book - Wytham Woods: Oxford's Ecological Laboratory - at a special meeting of the British Ecological Society's Forest Ecology Group on 29th April 2010.
13 April 2010
Endangered quolls taught to turn their noses up at toxic toad
Ecologists in Australia have successfully trained a critically endangered marsupial - the northern quoll - to turn its nose up at toxic cane toads. Their results, including fascinating behavioural video footage, are published today in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology and could provide conservationists with a vital new weapon in the fight against invasive species.
18 February 2010
Native meat ants to diminish cane toad population
With cat food as bait, scientists from The University of Sydney's School of Biological Sciences have succeeded in showing that native meat ants can assist in controlling the spread of cane toads.In March last year Professor Rick Shine and colleagues Georgia Ward-Fear and Greg Brown found encouraging evidence of the deadly effect of native meat ants on young cane toads.
